New York's wake-up call

The leaders of public employee unions have been modestly implying lately that New Yorkers, who already pay the highest taxes in the nation, should be only too happy to pay even higher taxes for the privilege of having the services of the maximum number of those self-same public employees.

To hear the union leaders tell it, it’s a great deal for us. And those who disagree with that cynical assessment are supposed to feel guilty for being so selfish.

The only trouble is that fewer and fewer New Yorkers are buying it. And they have options, including the option of moving out of this excessive-taxation state to other states where the taxpayers aren’t viewed as ever-handy ATMs.

That’s evident from an alarming new NY1-YNN-Marist College poll released last week. The poll shows that, more and more, the people who are supposed to be the future of the state plan to get out of it as soon as they can.

Thirty-six percent of the respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 told the pollsters they planned to leave the Empire State within the next five years. More than a quarter of adults overall want to leave by 2016. That’s up from 21 percent in a Siena College poll two years ago.

Fully a third of people living in the five boroughs and Long Island said they want to leave the state.

Those who say they want to move cited the high cost of living and high taxes, which, of course, contribute heavily to the high cost of living. Also cited were concerns about jobs and a fear that though the recession is supposed to be waning, the worst, economically speaking, is yet to come. Thirty-seven percent of New Yorkers polled feel the economy is getting worse.

“Right now, many young people do not see their future in New York state,” said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff. “Unchecked, this threatens to drain the state of the next generation.”

At the same time, this exodus, which is already ongoing, is contributing to the rapid graying of New York. There are now more than 2.3 million New Yorkers between the ages 55 and 64. That’s an astounding 37-percent jump from 2000.

With baby boomers just moving through their peak earning years heading into retirement, that trend portends a steady shrinking of the state’s tax base, which will only be exacerbated by the flight of younger people from the state.

New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, “I think this information should be a wake-up call for state policy leaders and local-government leaders to come to some consensus on how to best provide what government can offer to help keep older adults in our state before they leave and take their assets with them . . . ”

It should be a wake-up call. But with the proliferation of elected officials addicted to the mindset they can tap the state’s taxpayers as a limitless source of revenue to appease political allies, it probably won’t be until it’s way too late.